Sudbury's spelling bee winners offer their favourite words

Liam Tousignant says he wasn't afraid going into his first spelling bee. The nine-year-old Valleyview student said he just "had a feeling" he was going to win first place in the 13th annual Greater Sudbury regional competition.

The secret to Tousignant's success?

"I just studied a lot," he said.

Tousignant said his mother would pick random words from the list provided by the organizers, and call them out for him.

"Some words I had trouble, but I wasn't scared," he said. "Like Aries. I kept spelling it A-I-R-E-S."

The word that crowned Liam champion of the primary division was "moray," which he now considers his favourite word. And after winning first place— and the $200 prize— Tousignant has made plans.

"I'm hoping to buy a Playstation and Minecraft and some controllers," he said.

Transmogrify: to change in appearance or form

Brendon Matusch, a Lo-Ellen student who competed in the intermediate division, cites his experience taking the stage in spelling bees as the reason for keeping his cool.

He said after winning five or six times in the past (Matusch couldn't remember) he doesn't need the extra practice.

Matusch earned the prize by correctly spelling "misprision."

"It helps I've been doing it for many years," Matush said. "I honestly didn't practice as much as past years. And a lot of the words from this year were repeats."

Matusch, who hopes to attend the University of Waterloo for software engineering, says preparing for spelling bees has also has a practical benefit.

"I'm not just trying to look reasonably intelligent," he said. "The prizes encourage people to work on spelling because schools don't teach it enough."

"And it always helps to be able to write well so you don't have  a résumé that looks like four-year old put it together."

Matusch said his favourite word is "transmogrify."

"It thought it was coined by [Calvin and Hobbes creator] Bill Watterson, but it dates back to the 16th century. It means to transform."

Conundrum: a riddle 

Nicholas Sharkey, a homeschooler in his third year competing in the spelling bee, won first place in the junior division by spelling "nugatory." He said the event is both "fun and tiring."

To prepare for the bee, he "looks at all the words and writes them down three times," he said.

"Then my mother cuts all the words into strips, puts them into a bag, pulls them out and I have to spell it," he said.

His favourite word he also calls the "the most annoying word:" arduous.

Another of his favourites is "conundrum."

"Conundrum means a very annoying problem," he said. "And it is one."